Nearly Home from SF

I am writing this from the JFK airport while waiting for the final leg of my journey home from San Francisco. The flight from Oakland to JFK was my first experience with JetBlue's DirectTV consoles - it was very nice to be able to scroll through various channels and watch whatever I wanted. Another nice surprise was the fact that JetBlue supplies free wireless internet service here at JFK. Most airports have wireless internet, but will charge $5-10 for access.

The conference was great; it was wonderful to see old friends and interact with my future colleagues from Iowa State. My PhD advisor received a prestigious award plus I had the opportunity to attend a talk given my advisor's advisor (making him my grand-advisor) Ed Lightfoot, who is very well known in Chemical Engineering. On the way to San Francisco, I stopped in LA for the day and visited with both human and ape friends there.

While my trip was great, I am eager to get home, see my cats and get back to work. One of my coworkers at the University of Florida has been nice enough to feed and care for my cats while I was away. Check out this cool picture of Cleofus. He moved while I was taking the picture and it left a very ghostly impression. And speaking of my nice coworker, check out this great video of her daughter on youtube.

Happy Thanksgiving wishes to everyone. I'm very excited about the opportunity to celebrate with my family this year - it will be the first time to spend Thanksgiving (or my birthday) with my family in 7 years. It will also be my first time to meet my nephew Jacob, so I'm really looking forward to it. I'm not too enthused about turning 30 though.